Marco and Alice turned towards the mysterious person, and Marco's eyes widened while Alice had an annoyed look in her face.
Marco: Goddammit!
The mysterious person was Amira, the unfortunate lamia.
Amira: Hello readers! The most favorite person is back!
Marco: Stop breaking the 4th wall!! And who the hell said that you are the most favorite?!
Amira: Well, it was obvious since I am the true heroine in this novel! In every work the heroine is the most popular.
Alice: When did you become the heroine?! Don't joke around like that!
Alice seemed strangely angry, while Marco sighed and let Amira talk.
Amira: Actually… A wicked wizard turned me into this ugly sight. If I get a kiss from my true love, I'll return back to my princess form…
Marco: I would have used Avada Kedavra immediately if I was the wizard…
Amira: ...That's just rude… *Sigh* There's no helping it… It looks like I'll have to use my newly acquired magic. Here I go! Heart Splash!
...But nothing happened…
Amira: Heart Splash!
She repeated the words, but nothing happened…
Amira panicked and yelled.
Amira: Hey Author! You should write about the skill! Not 'But nothing happened'!
...Why should I…?
Amira: We talked about it!
...Did we?
Amira: Yes!
...Then I was on drugs that time… Well, bye.
Amira: W-Wait a se-
*Pop*
She instantly disappeared from the road, while Marco and Alice were trying to understand what in god's name happened just now.
Marco: *Sigh* If I try to understand it then I would stay here all the day… Let's go, Alice.
Alice shook her head in exasperation and followed Marco towards Happiness Village.
[Later]
Marco and Alice were walking in the road inside a forest towards Happiness Village, when Alice suddenly asked.
Alice: By the way… Do you know why it's called Happiness Village?
Marco: If I did not got it wrong… It's because of the Harpy Village, right?
Alice was a bit surprised from his knowledge and asked.
Alice: How did you know about the village?
Marco: ...It's written in the map… 'That and because I fucking played this game… Now it's life for me…'
Marco brought out a map about Illias Continent and pointed to Harpy Village that was near Happiness Village, Alice raised an eyebrow and muttered.
Alice: Well, I didn't expected that…
Marco: Probably there are problems there because the harpies are doing som-Huh?
Marco noticed that Alice vanished and got serious, he used 'Start' and was covered in the usual thin layer of aura.
Then from behind a tree, a bee girl appeared, she had the upper body of a normal girl, but she had another pair of arms, which were black, coming from her back, she had antennas on her hair, while her abdomen was yellow, like the one of a bee and her legs were insect-like.
She had a pair of bee wings coming from her back and attached to her abdomen there was a nest around her size
She noticed Marco and let out a lewd smile, it seems that she ignored the red aura surrounding him.
Bee Girl: Fufu… An unbaptized traveler. You look delicious.
She licked her lips as she stared at Marco while honey started to drip from her nest.
Bee Girl: I'll spread my honey all over you, and slowly like it off… Let my tongue taste every part of you…
Then she tried to pour her honey all over Marco, but he sidestepped and threw a housekick to her face , she received the hit and flew some meters away from Marco, then she gritted her teeth and used one of her 4 hands to caress her cheek.
Bee Girl: You…
She was interrupted when Marco jumped at her face and stomped it, this time she flew against a tree and fell unconscious while her nose broke, but she glowed and turned in an unconscious small bee.
Marco took small breaths while his aura disappeared, behind him Alice slithered and looked at the bee before turning towards Marco.
Alice: Good work, using just enough power to defeat her instead of using your tails…
Marco: I always do that, it is exciting fighting someone near your level… Well, let's go, the village should be near.
Alice nodded and followed Marco towards Happiness Village.
[Later]
The duo arrived at their destination.
Marco: So this is Happiness Village… Well, it is a bit disappointing…
In the village, there were only some dozen of houses while horses were going around, freely, the path was made by cutting grass, but the most noticeable thing was the absence of males, there were only women working around.
Marco looked around and found only a boy in the distance, he seemed 9 or 10 years old and was transporting a hive, while Alice, in her human form, glanced around the village too.
Alice: You must have noticed it…
Marco: Yeah… You have a really nice ass…
Alice headbutted him with a pissed off expression, Marco stumbled while holding his head from pain, then he turned towards Alice with an angry expression and yelled.
Marco: I was just joking!!
Alice: So you don't like my ass?
Then she smirked, put an hand on her waist and seducently waved her ass in front of Marco, he just facepalmed and said.
Marco: *Sigh* Ok, you won… Still, I noticed the absence of the men around…
A woman heard them and came nearby while smiling.
Woman: Oh, a traveler? A young one, at that.
Then her face turned in a apologetic one.
Woman: You came all the way here, but we don't really have anything to entertain a traveler with. Due to a shortage of manpower, we have a shortage of our speciality Happiness Honey, too…
Marco: 'Well, I don't care about honey when I still have some kebabs which were left for me that I hid from Alice… But…' Is it for the harpies that lives nearby?
Before the woman could answer the question, they heard a scream coming from the boy who was carrying the nest.
Boy: Waaaaaa!
Marco turned towards the boy and found him with an harpy, she had the body of a kid of 13 years, she had blue ribbons covering her chest and waist, her wings and her bird legs were made of light brown feathers while at the tip of the wings there were grey ones.
She had pink hairs and two wing-like accessories where her ears should be, and she was grabbing the boy, and about to take off with him in her talons.
Boy: Uwaa! Help me!
Marco's body was surrounded with a thin layer of red energy, and runned as fast as he could towards the harpy, she started to fly, but Marco was in time to grab on one of the boy's legs to put weight on the harpy.
Meanwhile, the other villagers entered their houses, and the harpy fell in the ground while letting go of the boy.
The harpy got up and turned towards Marco with a curious gaze.
Harpy: Huh? I haven't seen you in this village before… Are you a traveler?
She was sizing up Marco with her eyes, but she immediately stopped when she noticed the aura surrounding him, and got cautious.
Harpy: What is that?
While the harpy and Marco were looking at each other, the boy runned away, and Marco rushed at the harpy. The harpy grinned and started to fly in the sky, avoiding Marco, he gritted his teeth from annoyance while the harpy started becoming arrogant.
Harpy: What's the matter? You can't do anything? Ha ha ha ha!
Marco: Tsk…
Then Marco used his 1st Gate, his aura expanded and a tail was created behind his back, the harpy got curious about what Marco was doing and seen his tail extending towards her at a really fast speed, it took shape of a claw and slammed at her, making her fall.
Harpy: Kyaaaaaa!
Before she could crash headfirst in the ground, she was grabbed from Marco's arms.
Marco: So… Mind telling me what is happening at the village?
Harpy: ...Ok…
The harpy accepted her defeat and took her behind a house to talk about the current situation.
Marco knew already much about it, but he thought that he may have forgot anything.
The informations that he got from the harpy were…
They were kidnapping men because they were afraid of dying out…
The men they kidnapped were healthy and unscathed...
They already have kids…
They were living happily with their new families…
It seems that there wasn't any new information, so he just let the harpy go and turned back at the center of the village. But he was immediately surrounded.
Villagers: What happened?!/ The traveler drove the Harpy away? Amazing!
Marco checked around once again and except for the boy he saved, there weren't any other men, then the mob separated in two and let pass an old woman, she was the wife of the Chief of the village.
Elder: Driving off the Harpy… You must be really skilled!
Marco shrugged and asked.
Marco: Who are you?
Elder: I'm the village chief's wife… Since he has been kidnapped, I am the acting village chief.
Alice came beside Marco with her arms crossed and closed eyes and said.
Alice: Barricading yourself in a house even as a child is being abducted? Can you really call yourself a chief like that? Actually, not a single person in this village tried to help…
Marco couldn't say anything about it because it was true, the villagers stood silent, while the elder got a pissed off expression and pointed at her with her cane.
Elder: Who do you think you are, you brat!
Marco put an hand over the cane and looked at the elder with a soft expression.
Marco: Calm down, elder, she's almost always like this…
The elder looked at Marco before sighing and putting down her cane, then she said.
Elder: Traveler… We hate to impose, but we have a favor to ask of you…
Alice interrupted her with an amused smile.
Alice: Hahaha, here it comes, Marco… Now they're going to try to force their problems on you.
Marco: *Sigh* Alice, you wanted to come here, don't complain now, do it in somewhere you didn't wanted to go…
Alice's smile disappeared and she let out a sigh, then the Elder started to speak.
Elder: I'm sure you're aware, but there are no men in this village. As you saw earlier, the harpies are kidnapping all of our men.
Now, the villagers started to talk about their men.
Villagers: The man I married two months ago was kidnapped.../ My new husband, too! Even though he came from another village, he was kidnapped a month ago.../ Even my fourteen year old son… Those harpies again…
Marco listened to everyone and started to laugh, surprising everyone, even Alice, because she didn't listened to what the Harpy said.
Elder: What's the matter?
Marco: No… It's just… Heh… The men you are talking about are already living happily and have daughters…
Everyone: ...Eh?
Marco: Yeah, the harpies took your men as husbands and you all became aunts of baby harpies…
[SPECIAL QUESTS]
1st. Kick Gabriel's ass
2nd. Achieve coexistence between Monsters and Humans
3rd. Kill Illias
4th. Return to Lucifina's grave
5th. Visit every places in Illias Continent, Sentora and Hellgondo
6th. Help the villagers of Happiness Village